Healer
by Raven06
Summary: RatchetxOC A decepticon femme is found by Optimus, is taken back ot the base and repaired by Ratchet. However, they soon realize that it wasnt a matter of 'what happened ot her' is was more a matter of 'who happend to her'.
1. Found and A Scream

**Healer I**

It was a normal day at the Autobot base hidden deep in the woods of Tranquility, and by normal that means Sunstreaker and Sideswipe pissing off a certain black weapons specialist all because they had the extreme urge to paint his beloved canons florescent green while he was in stasis. As usual, with their prank came more visits to the med bay so they could annoy their favorite medic, Ratchet.

Other then that things had been quiet since the battle of Mission City, too quite for Optimus's liking, both Ironhide and Jazz shared that sentiment. However, that didn't mean that the mechs didn't enjoy the lull in the fighting.

It was in the middle of the afternoon when Ratchet picked up a Decepticon signal near the base. The medic called Optimus down to the command center to inform him of the new development. When the Autobot leader entered the command center he looked over Ratchet's shoulder, taking in all the information on the screen. It was strange neither of the two mechs recognized the signal.

"A new Decepticon?" The red and blue mech questioned. The yellow Autobot shook his head in reply.

"If that was the case we would have picked up on its entry into Earth's atmosphere days ago," he replied. Optimus nodded in agreement.

"Keep an optic on the screen for me. I'm going to go and check out the situation," he said. Before Ratchet could protest, Optimus was gone.

Tracking the signal based on the coordinates that Ratchet had given him, Optimus found himself in a dense forest about ten miles from the base. The trees were so close together that the red and blue mech was having a hard time getting around, even in his bipedal form.

Just as he was about to leave, he notice something out of the corner of his optic. Turning he found that it was a puddle of energon, a rather large one. Upon further inspection he found that several trees had been completely snapped in half along with a deep trough in the ground, as if they had crashed.

As Optimus approached the broken trees the weak signal intensified slightly and the red and blue mech couldn't help but gasp at what he saw. There amidst the wreckage of the trees was a femme, a femme still in her proto form. The Autobot leader got closer to her and winced at the state the unconscious femme was in.

Various dents and gashes were scattered across her small frame, some of them leaking energon. Her left arm had been dislocated at the shoulder but what concerned him most was her right leg. The appendage was twisted at an odd angle and was leaking energon at an alarming rate. On top of that it appeared that most of the delicate wiring in her leg had been ripped out mercilessly.

"Ratchet," Optimus said over his com-link as he, as carefully as he could, picked up the lifeless femme. "Prepare the med bay."

"Status?" The medic asked in a serious tone, his heavy footfalls to the med bay could be heard over the link.

"Bad," the red and blue Autobot said flatly. "She's in stasis lock from loss of energon and her left shoulder and right leg are is critical condition."

"Understood. The bay is ready for your arrival," Ratchet said, not even noticing that Optimus had said _she_.

The leader of the Autobots arrived in the med bay seconds after their conversation ended and the Ratchet was there waiting. He then told him to lay her down on the table then shoved him out of the med bay. The yellow medics first concern was to stop her 'bleeding'. Scanning the femmes limp figure as he worked, he found that she had had lost almost a fourth of the energon in her system.

Once he stopped the 'bleeding' in her leg he started to work on her left shoulder. Upon scanning the dislocated joint he quickly found that at least half if was going to have to be replaced. Growling in frustration he hailed Red Alert over his com-link, telling him that he required his assistance. As an afterthought he gave the red mech a long list of parts for him to pick up on his way to the med bay.

Optimus had been sitting at his desk for almost an hour looking through files on Decepticon recruits. Not a single femme. _Who are you? _Sighing, the red and blue mech rubbed his optics tiredly. He had just pulled up another file when someone knocked on his door.

"Enter," he said without looking up from the folder. The door hissed slightly as it opened and in stepped the all too familiar form of Ironhide.

"Rumor on the base is we have a captive," the black Autobot stated. The weapons specialist had never been one to dance around a subject. _That took longer then expected, _the leader of the Autobots thought to himself. Given the current state of activity happening he had expected word to spread within a few minutes. Optimus sighed inwardly and closed the file that he had been looking through.

"She holds no threat to us, so I do not see her as a captive," he replied evenly as he looked up at the trigger happy mech in front if him.

"She, sir?" Ironhide had picked up on the right away. It had been _vorns_ since they had heard of, more or less _seen_, a femme that was still alive. The Autobot leader simply nodded in reply.

"She's in the med bay with Ratchet and Red Alert," he said. No sooner had he said that there was an audio sensor piercing scream that came from the med bay. Both Optimus and Ironhide were out the door and sprinting down the hall to the bay.


	2. Repaired, and a Name

**Healer II**

Ironhide charged into the med bay, canons drawn, ready to blast anything that so much as twitched in his direction. The black mech was abruptly assaulted by a flying wrench coming in contact with his head.

"Put your fragging canons away!" Ratchet yelled angrily. Not daring to question the Chief Medical Officer, Ironhide did as he was told. Optimus was right behind the canon toting Autobot and was about to ask what was going on when he saw it.

In the corner of the room, curled up into as small a ball as possible, was the femme that he had found. The small mech's leg was still in a desperate state of disrepair and was sparking something fierce. Before the red and blue mech could say anything, Red Alert, Ironhide and he were all ordered out of the bay.

Ratchet sighed as the door hissed close and forced himself to try and clam down. Turning back around so he was looking at the small femme in the corner, he sighed. Walking back over to the corner he kneeled in front of her and reached out to her. The instant his fingers brushed against her scantly armored arm she whimpered and tried to retreat further into the corner. This simply caused the medic to sigh again.

"I'm not going to hurt you," he said as comfortingly as he could. The small mech looked up at the yellow mech in front of her. The medic frowned when he saw the fear shining in her deep red optics. _What on earth happened to her to make her so afraid? _The medic thought to himself. Just as Ratchet was about to say something he noticed that the proto femme was examining his handy work on shoulder.

After testing the mobility of her newly repaired shoulder, she looked up at the Autobot in front of her with the ghost of a smile on her face. This caused Ratchet to smile slightly in return. He then looked at her leg and found that the wounds had reopened and were leaking energon again.

"I need to finish repairing your leg," he said gently as he reached out to help her up. He instantly regretted this because she jerked away from his touch. Signing inwardly he let her get to her feet on her own, which proved difficult considering she only had one working leg.

By the time the femme was back on the table her leg was leaking even worse and had started sparking. Easing her down onto the table he reached out to her leg but, as expected, she pulled away from his touch.

"I'm just going to turn off the pain receptors on your leg," he explained as he locked his bright blue optics with her blood red ones. The small mech regarded him for a moment before she decided to let him touch her, and even then Ratchet could feel her flinch on occasion.

After a good hour or so of realigning her leg and replacing most of the vital circuitry he wiped his hands on a rag and gave her a heavy painkiller before reactivating the receptors in her leg.

"You're going to have to stay off your leg for awhile while the inner circuitry repairs itself," he said as he helped sit her up, not taking his eyes off of her. The small proto form simply nodded in understanding.

"Can you talk?" He asked, looking down at her. She nodded in reply.

"Can you tell me your name?" He pressed. He knew that Optimus was anxious to know who exactly they were dealing with, and he was as well.

"S-Skidmark," she said timidly.

"Skidmark," Ratchet said, as if testing out the name. "Since you're still recovering from my repairs, you'll be spending the night here." As he put his tools away he saw, out of then corner of his optic, a look of panic spread across her face. He immediately rephrased what he had just said.

"You'll be in your own room and I'll be down the hall," he explained. However, this didn't seem to help his patient's apprehension. The yellow Autobot sighed and motioned for her to follow him. Skidmark, hesitantly, complied with the medic's request too afraid that if she refused he would undo the repairs that he had just done.

The doors to the med bay hissed open and Ratchet, who was busy keeping an optic on Skidmark, failed to see that Optimus, Ironhide and Red Alert were outside waiting for some sort of news. The yellow medic only looked up when he saw the look of complete terror on the young Decepticon femmes face. Upon doing so he came face to face with Optimus Prime.

Ratchet judged by Skidmark's reaction of the gigantic red and blue mech in front of her that she knew very well who he was. The Autobot leader looked down at the femme, who was no taller then Jazz, with a curious expression. Hen then reached out to touch her. Big mistake.

Skidmark saw the mechs hand coming towards her and panicked. She did the first thing she thought of. The small mech closed her optics and let out an audio sensor piercing scream that forced the Autobots around her to cover their audio sensors to keep them from overloading.

The twins Sunstreaker and Sideswipe came running down the hall the instant they heard the noise and picked up on the Decepticon signal. The two of them rounded the corner to see a femme, at least half their size, screaming her vocal capacitor out.

Ratchet saw the twins approach and feared for the young femme's life. Sideswipe might not fire on sight but his brother most definitely would. The medic opened a link between the Lamborghini brothers and told them no to fire.

As Skidmark continued to scream, the yellow Autobot snuck up behind her and manually off-lined her. The femme's optics sprung open when she felt someone touching her but before she could react her body had already started to go into stasis. What could only be described as a weak moan escaped her throat as she collapsed into the medics arms.


	3. Realization and Stats

**Healer III**

"What the _frag _was that?!" Ironhide yelled angrily once he uncovered his audio sensors. Optimus looked at Ratchet and saw the irritated look in his optics.

"I am sorry Ratchet," the red and blue Autobot said in a sincerely apologetic tone. The yellow mech shook his head in reply.

"It was going to happen again eventually," he replied flatly as he picked Skidmark up and carried her to her room.

Laying the femme down on the recharge bed in the small room he sighed and looked her over. Now that she was unconscious and still he could finally get a good look at her and any other wounds he may have missed. Judging by her size he figured that she was probably a head or two shorter the Jazz and was built for espionage.

He then noticed the old cuts scattered across her armor that had been crudely welded shut. Along with that came some poorly replaced armor pieces that were too small for her petite frame.

Running his long fingers over the older armor on her chest, he felt deep claw like marks in it. Knitting his optic ridges together he followed some of the marks and found that they crossed directly over her spark. He jerked his had back when he felt partly melted metal under his fingers. Optics widened in horror as realization dawned on him.

"Oh Primus no," the medic whispered as he looked at the unconscious femmes face. "Please, let me be wrong." With that said he quickly made his way from the room to Optimus's office.

The leader of the Autobots knew something was wrong when Ratchet entered his office, visibly distraught. Ratchet was renowned for his ability to remain calm in the direst of situations, even when a comrade of his was dying on the table.

"Talk to me Ratchet," Optimus said calmly. The yellow mech paced in front of his desk like a caged animal. Unable to say what he suspected may have happed to the young femme.

"She had a bond forced on her," the medic said, his voice edged with anger. Optimus's optics widened as everything fell into place. The wounds, not talking, not wanting to be touched, it all made sense. Then the rage hit him. Balling his hands into fists he felt the energon in his circuitry burn with hate.

Optimus had always known that the Decepticons were capable of great evil, but he never imagined that they would treat a femme in such a manner. Especially one of their own kind.

"I suspect it was either Megatron or Starscream. Only the two of them are twisted enough to do something like this," Ratchet growled. "But I won't know anything for certain until a run some tests." There was a heavy pause between the two mechs.

"Where is she now?" Optimus asked looking up at the medic in front of him.

"I manually off lined her. She's resting in the spare room down from mine," Ratchet replied with a heavy sigh.

"Did you happen to find out her name?" He questioned, still curious to exactly who they were dealing with.

"Yes, her name is Skidmark," the yellow Autobot sighed as he rubbed his optics tiredly.

"Get some rest Ratchet. You've had a long day and deserve a proper recharge," the red and blue mech said calmly. Ratchet simply nodded in response and left to retire to his room for the night.

Ratchet woke around six the next day and headed to the med bay to prep it for the repairs that were bound to happen that day. As he sat out his equipment, he sighed and dreaded trying to run tests in Skidmark. The poor femme was absolutely terrified of them, and frankly he couldn't blame her. Not only had she been raped, she was surrounded by the enemy and most likely feared that they would do worse to her then Megatron ever did.

Just as he finished setting up the bay for the day the door hissed open and Optimus strode in. The medic looked up at the red and blue mech and noticed the folder that he was carrying.

"This is all the information that I could find on Skidmark," Optimus said handing the thin folder to the Chief Medical Officer. Ratchet couldn't help but frown at such little information.

"Thank you Optimus," he said as he continued to read the file.

_Subject Name:_

_Skidmark_

_Alias: Skid_

_Allegiance:_

_Decepticon_

_Physical Attributes:_

_Strength: 8_

_Intelligence: N/A_

_Speed: 9_

_Endurance: 7_

_Rank in Army: 4_

_Courage: 6_

_Firepower: 4 _

_Skill Trained In: _

_Espionage_

_Rank in Skill: 9_

_Effectiveness Rating:_

_58.75_

Ratchet read the file but what grabbed his attention was her intelligence rating. _Not applicable? _When he saw that he knitted his optic ridges together. He figured that there were two possibilities.

The first was that, when recruited, the Decepticon's didn't bother to test her mental status. They simply wanted able bodied fighters. Judging by her strength, speed and endurance ratings, they definitely got that out of her.

The second was that she was as innocent and naïve as a sparkling. _Please don't have that be the case, _the COM thought as he closed Skidmark's file. Checking the time, the yellow medic figured that he should probably wake Skidmark and start to run some tests on her.

The instant he reactivated the small femme, the first thing she did was get as far away from him as possible. It hurt the medic to see such strong fear in her brilliant red optics.

"I'm sorry Skidmark," Ratchet apologized. "I had to offline you before you hurt yourself." As he said that, the small femme regarded him warily as she did a systems check. Sure enough, she was fine. No one had touched her since the med bay episode.

Skidmark shifted her weight to her right leg as she looked at the tall medic in front of her. Suddenly a jolt of pain shot through the newly repaired limb causing her to gasp as the appendage buckled from under her.

Ratchet reacted within a split second. Lunging forward he caught her just as her optics widened in realization of what was happening, her reflexes were slowed from the strong painkiller that he had given her the previous day. He was surprised, however, that she wasn't fighting to make him let go of her. _Either she's too tired or too afraid, _he thought as he helped stand her back up.

"I would like to run a few simple tests on you if you feel up to it," he said as he tried to look into Skidmark's optics. The femme wouldn't look at him, but she nodded in understanding and let him lead her out of her room and down the hall to the med bay.


	4. Talking and Goodies

**Healer IV**

The two of them made it to the bay with few interruptions, by few that meant Skidmark jumping at every other thing that she saw out of the corner of her optic. Ratchet was glad though that the small femme allowed him to keep his hand on her shoulder, albeit she was constantly on guard and the limp in her right leg was still very pronounced.

On top of that, he could feel her internal systems straining to work as the capacity she was demanding. _How long has it been since she refueled properly? _He wondered as the doors to the bay slid open with a soft hiss.

"Take a seat on the table please," he said as he turned his back to her and pulled out a few small tools. Skidmark did as the taller mech asked of her. _He seems nice, _she thought as she looked at her bad leg, the ghost of a smile on her face. It quickly vanished when her thought turned to others. _Then again…so did they. _She was pulled form her thoughts by a hand on her shoulder. Squeaking slightly she pulled away from the hand.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you." Ratchet apologized when he saw the fear in her optics. He then noticed the wary look she was giving soldering tool in his hand.

"I just want to close some of these old wounds a little more," he said softly. Just before the tool touched her armor, the femmes body went ridged as she braced herself for the pain. _Primus, it wasn't just the forced spark bonding, _he thought sadly as he closed a particularly large gash on her left arm. As he worked he couldn't help but constantly be distracted by how tense she was.

"How long have you been on Earth?" He asked as he tried to distract her from his touch, that and he really wanted to get her to talk.

"Um…" she said almost inaudibly. "I…I'm not…quite sure."

"That's alright," he said calmly as he felt some of the tension leave her shoulders. "Do you remember anything about when you landed?"

"It…It was…cold," Skidmark continued. Ratchet stopped working for a moment. _It was winter when she landed?! _He thought aghast. _Its June now._

"R-Ratchet?" She said in a weak voice, pulling the CMO from his thoughts.

"Yes?"

"I-I don't…feel…" the grey femme trailed off at the end as her optic flickered slightly. Ratchet sat down the welder and steadied her small frame as he scanned her quickly.

"You need to refuel," he said seriously. "Can you walk?" Normally he would have had Red Alert bring energon to the bay but he didn't want to overwhelm Skidmark, not after she had just started to talk to him. She nodded in reply as she got off the table and let Ratchet drape one of her arms over his strong shoulders, too weak to protest.

As the two of them walked, the yellow Autobot thought. _If she's gone this long without properly refueling, her systems wont be able to take liquid energon. I'll have to start her off small, _with that last thought he found they were already at the mess hall. Sitting her down on the couch he quickly crossed the room and found a small box of solid energon goodies. They weren't nearly as rich as the liquid form, but they were a start.

"Here," he said placing a small goodie in her hand. "You've gone so long without nourishment that I cant give you liquid energon, unless I want it all over me, which I can assure you I don't." This caused a small smile to tug at the corner of her lips as she chewed on the small goodie.

About three goodies later, a few more mechs had wandered into the mess hall for some energon. The same tension had crept back into Skidmark's frame. Ratchet sighed and closed the box.

"That's enough for now," he said as she pushed himself to his feet and turned to put the box away. The seasoned medic was surprised when he felt a small hand grab onto his, but just as quickly as it came it went. Turning around he found that the proto form femme had her hand clutched to her chest and had a very scared expression on her face. Apparently she thought that she had done something wrong.

"You've done nothing wrong," he said as he kneeled back down in front of her. Skidmark focused on the floor in front of her but nodded in understanding. The medic sighed inwardly and put the goodies box in his subspace.

"Come on, lets get you back to the med bay," he said as he helped her to her feet. This time she was able to walk without his assistance, though she winced every time she had to put a lot of weight on it.

When they were back at the bay Skidmark took her place back on the table and Ratchet continued to close some of her old wounds. As he worked he tried to strike up more conversation with her, but he quickly found that whoever her commander had been back on Cybertron had made sure to keep her in the dark about most of her missions, more or less what was happening on the planet.

However, it was very obvious that she remembered what had been done to her at the Decepticon base. This was apparent when Ratchet reached out to her chest plate. Pieces of memories found their way to her central processor. A clawed hand reached out to her. Blood red eyes. Deep, malicious laughter. Then there was the pain.

Skidmark screamed.

Ratchet had felt the femmes systems speed increase and he readied himself for another panic attack by turning off his audio receptors. He didn't want to off line her again, fearing that that may make her trust him less. So he did the only thing he could think of. He held her. He held her in his arms and let her scream her vocal capacitor out. When he felt her stop screaming, he reactivated his audio receptor and found that she was crying hysterically.

"Shhhhh, it's alright. No one's going to hurt you," he whispered as he rubbed the small femmes back soothingly.


End file.
